Due to the labour day weekend we only had one class this week.
With my classes running Monday through Thursday, having the first day of the week off allowed me to take up a freelance job camera operating at the 4-day Port Fairy Folk Festival’s main stage. I found this to really reinforce the things we were learning in class (even only being 1 week in), mainly the importance of being fluent in camera terminology, and the contributing factors to depth of field (specifically in relation to what makes focusing more difficult).
In our third class (which will apparently be our final class delivered in person for the time being, due to developments in the coronavirus situation), we covered the duties and importance of certain on crew members, mainly focusing on the 1st AC, or the ‘focus puller’.
I think one very important thing I learnt from this class was the standard procedure for shooting a film in regard to the director’s responsibilities. My understanding was the order of operations was:
- Blocking the action
- Considering how the scene should be covered (e.g: deciding on the master)
- Running rehearsals of the action and camera moves (if applicable)
- Rolling for a take
I find myself to be someone who likes having a standard formula for making things happen, that way, when I need to figure ‘what’s next?’, I have something to refer to. This is definitely something I will be developing while I grow as a filmmaker and gain more experience as a director. I think it’s very easy to get overwhelmed when approaching a big task; being able to break the process down into individual parts will help a lot.